TCU coach fails to back his own message on drug use
07 August 2012 08:47 PM
It’s that time again in Texas when young men spill gallons of sweat to prepare themselves for the rigors of another season, when every team is undefeated and has a chance to win it all. (That’s football season, by the way. This being Texas, it seemed redundant to specify.)
Optimism should run even higher at Texas Christian University. Our friends from Fort Worth are embarking on their first season in the Big 12 Conference, a long-awaited step up to college football’s big time.
So it’s unfortunate that they opened practice this week with public talk focused on what has become a very public mistake by coach Gary Patterson.
This wasn’t a missed opportunity like failing to score after recovering a fumble inside the other team’s 10-yard line. This was a blown chance to draw a clear line for every TCU football player, present and future, between acceptable behavior and time sitting in the stands.
Patterson was among the mortified in February, when four of his players were arrested and charged in an extensive drug ring at TCU. The university cut ties with those players, who have pleaded guilty and received probation. One of the arrestees, star linebacker Tanner Brock, told an undercover cop that Patterson ordered a teamwide drug test and that 60 players were "screwed." The university responded that only five players failed the test.
Patterson at least sounded unequivocal: "Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU’s student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff. Period."
Coach, what if it’s your starting quarterback?
This was the news that broke just before practice began. Casey Pachall, a record-setting sophomore passer last season, was Brock’s roommate. Pachall told police in the investigation that he had used marijuana and tried cocaine and "ecstasy." He also was among the five who failed the Feb. 1 drug test, although Patterson said Pachall passed several others since.
So "will not be tolerated" really means … what? According to the university, it’s mandatory drug education counseling and/or treatment for all first-offending students, which is what Pachall received. To Patterson, it’s apparently that Pachall keeps throwing passes and, hopefully, leading TCU to a big season.
To everyone else, "will not be tolerated" might well depend on how important you are to the team’s record. If a coach is willing to punish - or give a pass to - the starting quarterback, a leader and most valuable player on most winning teams, he cements an attitude, a culture, for the rest.
A driven, successful coach of a rising program had it within his control to back up his tough talk by going beyond university policy for chem students and English majors. Instead, Patterson wasted a chance to prove wrong those doubters who say winning football games trumps all, even at an institution of higher education.
Gary Patterson, then and now
"As I heard the news this morning, I was first shocked, then hurt, and now I’m mad. Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU’s student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff. Period. Our program is respected nationally for its strong ethics, and for that reason the players arrested today were separated from TCU by the university. I believe strongly that young people’s lives are more important than wins or losses."
TCU football coach Gary Patterson, after the arrest of four players in February in a campus drug ring
"We’ve been pretty straightforward with what we have done here. … This is not one of those things where we’re pushing it aside. As a parent, as a coach, as a person in charge of young people, I know what it leads to, so you have to fix it, or at least try to."
Patterson, responding to questions this week about his decision to not discipline starting quarterback Casey Pachall for admitted marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy use
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20120807-editorial-tcu-coach-fails-to-back-his-own-message-on-drug-use.ece
